It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Christmas is my FAVORITE holiday, so I tend to completely bypass Thanksgiving.  This is my first Christmas in my own home (previously I've lived in apartments) so I have been looking forward to decorating. 

I've only put a few touches around the house, but I'm excited about what I have so far. 

My first creation was glittered pinecones.

This was so easy to do and I think the result is gorgeous. All you need is pinecones, your choice of glitter, spray adhesive, and paper sacks.  Fill a paper sack with a generous amount of glitter, spray a pinecone with the adhesive (make sure to get underneath too), drop in the paper sack, and shake for a few seconds.  I found that it helped to wear gloves, otherwise you end up covered in glue and glitter. 

This vase filled with sticks was my next project.  I found sticks in my backyard and spray painted them silver.  To make it really festive, I added small red ornaments and a big red bow on the front of the vase.

While shopping a few weeks ago, I came across these gorgeous red feather trees.  I really, really wanted to get one, but I couldn't find a red one in the 12" size I wanted... so I decided to try to make it myself.  It only took me about 30 seconds to find a tutorial online (Here is the Martha Stewart Tutorial that I used).  All you need is a styrofoam cone, feathers, a skewer, and hot glue.  I found that it took 3 bags of feathers to complete my 12" tree.  I was picky about which ones I wanted to use.  My only complaint was that my feathers didn't curve out as much as the ones Martha Stewart used.  Overall I liked the end result though. :) 

So here is my finished Christmas shelf.  I lined it was garland and added a cute silver reindeer that I picked up the other day.  I like how it turned out, but I'm sure I can think of something else to add to make it even better. 

I'm almost done with my wreath, so I'll be posting a picture of that in the near future!